As Saudis, we tend to avoid talking about mental illnesses. Many people go to see psychiatrists secretly because they do not want others to know. A doctor told me some patients change their names or ask doctors to keep their visits a secret. Why do people act as if they have committed a crime and do not want people to know or as if they have been to a nightclub. The reason can be traced back to our culture and the tendency of some of us to busy themselves in other people's business. A person who goes to see a psychiatrist might worry himself to death fearing that others will come to know that he is unwell. Depression is something that we see everyday on the faces of people we bump into or pass by at an airport or in a government office. Why do we feel depressed? Why do people get angry? Depression starts in the early formative years of a child. He might get depressed because of constant family problems that always end up in parents screaming, shouting and fighting with each other. Such children will go to school with the same mindset and no one at school will be able to tell if the child is depressed. If he does something wrong, his parents will be called into the principal's office and he will be punished. Our schools do not have proper counselors. There are student counselors who might have studied at university and looked for jobs with bonuses and the usual perks. They might themselves be depressed. They took a crash course or pulled some strings here or there and ended up working as counselors. A student who shows symptoms of depression needs a trained professional who understands his problem and can dig deeper into the student's life to find the root cause of the depression. The last thing a depressed student needs is to be sent to a student counselor who bombards him with repetitive questions and instructions that can be found in old and obsolete student counseling guidebooks. If a student gets sick, he will simply be referred to a primary healthcare center. These centers do not do anything except administer fever and influenza injections. Our schools are full of students of all ages who are depressed. I am certain that no single student counselor has so far conducted a study on depressed students. I am also sure the Ministry of Education has not even thought about replacing the present student counselors with people who are specialists in mental illnesses. The ministry has not studied the behavior of juvenile delinquents and has not linked it to depression, which keeps cropping up into the minds of our students. A depressed student will grow into a depressed employee, husband and even old man. Depression will accompany the person everywhere. We must admit that we as people are not good at smiling and laughing. Depression is widespread in our society and on our streets. If we smile, then we ease the pressure caused by daily life, traffic congestion and bureaucracy. We should hold seminars and symposiums to discuss depression and never feel ashamed of talking about it and finding solutions for it.
